02Jan14

Chinese balloonist lands in midst of isle dispute with Japan

A Chinese man landed himself, literally, in the midst of a territorial dispute
between Asia's two great powers, crash-landing a hot air balloon near
contested islands held by Japan.

The Japanese coastguard said on Thursday it had rescued the balloonist,
identified as 35-year-old-chef Xu Shuaijun, on Wednesday in the sea near the
tiny isles, called the Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China.

The man's attempt to land his multicolored balloon on the rocky outcrops looks
unlikely to have big repercussions for the two countries, as a coastguard
spokesman said Japan handed him over to a Chinese patrol vessel on
Wednesday evening and Japan's coastguard was operating as normal.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang described the man as a
"balloon enthusiast", and confirmed he had been handed over to a Chinese
vessel upon being rescued and was in good health. He declined further
comment.

Xu's adventure comes amid high tension over the disputed territory between
the world's second- and third-biggest economies.

Both sides have been repeatedly scrambling fighter jets against perceived
threats, raising fear that a miscalculation could lead to conflict, which in turn
could draw in Japan's treaty ally, the United States.

On the day Xu, identified as a native of Hebei province, was fished out of the
water 22 km (14 miles) south of Uotsuri island, Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe reiterated his commitment to a stronger military and to revising the
pacifist constitution.

"Japan will play an even more proactive role than ever before for world peace
and stability," Abe said in a New Year's message. "We will fully defend the
lives and assets of our nationals as well as our territory, territorial waters and
territorial airspace in a resolute manner."

Abe was sticking to his guns in the face of strong criticism from China and
South Korea, and even a rare rebuke from the United States, over his visit a
week ago to a shrine seen by critics as a symbol of Tokyo's wartime
aggression.

Rubbing salt into the wound, Japan's Internal Affairs Minister Yoshitaka Shindo
on Wednesday also visited Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese leaders
convicted by the allies as war criminals are among the millions of enshrined
war dead.

Air Zone

Japan-China tension spiked in late November when Beijing announced an
air-defense zone covering a large swathe of the East China Sea, including the
disputed isles, demanding that all aircraft flying through the zone identify
themselves to Chinese authorities and keep communications open.

Japan has urged China to rescind the decision, and its military and civilian
aircraft have defied the requirements, flying through the zone without notifying
China. The United States refuses to recognize the zone and has sent military
aircraft through it.

Abe's announcement last month of more muscular defenses and security
policies and his reversal of years of declines in military spending have also
angered China.

China's "air-defense identification zone" may not, in fact, have been the
bombshell it originally seemed.

Japan's Mainichi newspaper said on Wednesday senior Chinese navy officials
briefed Japanese government officials on plans for an air-defense zone almost
four years ago.

Secret minutes of an informal May 2010 meeting at a think-tank in Beijing
show that senior Chinese officers discussed the planned zone with Japanese
officials, suggesting the two countries work out rules to avoid a conflict in
overlapping air zones, the newspaper said.

The report did not indicate whether the early plan included the most
contentious element of China's recent announcement: that aircraft must
identify themselves even if they are not headed for China's territorial airspace.

China's Defense Ministry, in statement faxed to Reuters, said that attendees at
the think-tank meeting were military experts and did not represent any official
position.

It said China informed Japan of the air zone plan shortly before it was formally
announced on November 23 last year.

Japanese Foreign Ministry officials could not immediately be reached.

[Source: By Junko Fujita, Reuters, Tokyo, 02Jan14]

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